In a cellular communications network, in which wireless terminals communicate via a base station attachment point, typically a centralized control node or base station node schedules competing users, e.g., wireless terminals, to use available traffic air link resources and/or manages interference in the system. However, in a deployment scenario in which a centralized node and/or base station is no longer in control, such as a peer to peer communications system, the problems of efficient management of traffic air link resources and interference control become more complex.
Accordingly, there is a need for methods and/or apparatus for adjusting traffic data rate and/or traffic data power levels to support efficient use of air link resources. It would be advantageous if at least some methods and apparatus for use in peer to peer communications systems could be provided for adjusting traffic data rate and/or traffic data signal power levels to efficiently utilize air link resources. It would also be beneficial if traffic data rate control and/or traffic data signal power control could be implemented on a slot to slot basis, in systems which support time slots, thus allowing rapid adjustment to changing conditions in the system.
There is also a need for methods and/or apparatus for identifying and/or estimating interference impacts between wireless communications devices corresponding to different connections which would like to use the same shared air link resources and/or making transmission decisions based on such identified or estimated information. Methods and/or apparatus that provide for opportunities at an intended receiver device and/or an intended transmitter device to veto a transmission request would be beneficial.
Methods and apparatus that structure a peer to peer communications system such that a peer to peer communications device can take into consideration interference to/from other users would be advantageous. There is also a need for methods and/or apparatus which link scheduling and data rate control to a corresponding traffic transmission interval. Such linkage would facilitate a peer to peer device to identify and evaluate operations of other devices seeking and/or intending to use the same traffic resource.